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Dr. Spencer Wihlm, a 2023 graduate from the University of Iowa College of Dentistry recently received the second installment of a loan forgiveness grant as part of the Martha Mordini Rukavina Loan Forgiveness Program.
Dr. Wihlm received a check from Dr. Michael Zakula, Vice-President of the Minnesota Dental Foundation.
This program, which began in 2009, has been funded by the IRRRB and has made it possible for 10 new dental graduates to return to the Iron Range to set up their dental practices and address the dental needs of the area’s population.
Former St. Louis County Commissioner and State Representative Tom Rukavina was instrumental in making the loan forgiveness program a reality. The program, which was named in honor of Rukavina’s late mother, Martha Mordini Rukavina, provides an incentive to attract dentists to practice in the Taconite Assistance Area (TAA), a designated dental shortage area in northeastern Minnesota. This program administered by the Minnesota Dental Foundation provides funds to help repay qualified dental education loans if the recipient dentist agrees to practice dentistry full-time in the TAA for a period of at least five years.
Recipients are compensated for outstanding educational debt for up to $120,000 over a period of four years. The average debt of graduate dentists is $335,000 and this program makes it possible for dentists to locate in the rural communities on the Iron Range.
Dr. Wihlm grew up in Mason City Iowa and attended the University of St Thomas in St, Paul, Minnesota for his undergraduate degree before moving on to the University of Iowa College of Dentistry where he received his Doctor of Dentistry with a Public Health Distinction. He was drawn to Ely for its close-knit community and adventurous culture.
